The phrase "go pound salt" orginated in the early days of commercial salt mine operations in the US. There were a number of specific jobs performed by people who worked in the mine. The lowest paying and most menial job was pounding large rocks into smaller crystals that could be used for cooking and curing of meats. This job was usually given to those deemed less intelligent (the village idiot, if you will) or those who could find no other gainful employment.

The phrase became a popular way of telling someone to "go fly a kite", do something meaningless or menial, or that they were an idiot and needed to go preoccupy themselves with something mundane like crushing rock salt into crystals.

Variation on the Theme

In other parts of the country where salt mines were not common, a variation on the theme came into existence. "Go pound sand" was adopted/ adapted to convey the same meaning and was a shortened form of the phrase "go pound sand down a rat hole." Anyone with a modicum of intelligence and common sense knew that pounding sand down a rat hole was a waste of time, an idiotic waste of time. The rat would quickly dig his way back out and the filled in hole would reappear.

Contrary to popular belief, both of these phrases; "go pound salt" and "go pound sand" are not vulgar. If you find a discussion that implies a vulgar or off color connotation, this likely results from the twisted world we live in!

Another way of saying 'get lost', 'go away' and generally 'don't bother me'. Obviously, it is similar to pound sand, but if it is a corruption of that term, or something else entirely, maybe somebody else knows. I'm not sure why anyone would pound salt down a rat hole, but maybe it is something that was done at one time. Perhaps it refers to crushing large pieces of salt into finer crystals, or weighing salt into smaller increments; both of which would be dull menial work. Maybe it refers to walking on salt, similar to 'hit the bricks' or 'kick mud', since salt is often spread on the ground as a de-icer in winter and is also common in desert and seashore areas.

When I brought the broken chair in for warranty replacement, the manager basically told me to pound salt, it wasn't a warranty problem.